There are five elements of info that you exchange with the other station, in the following order.

1. Serial number. Your first contact is "number one" of course. Your one-hundred and second contact is "number one zero two."

2. Precedence. With 100 Watts your precedence is A. Other letters you may hear are B, M, Q, S and U. They're always spoken phonetically, such as "Alpha" or "United."

3. Your callsign.

4. The check. A 2-digit number representing the year you got your first ham license. If that was 2003 for example, say "zero-three" or "check zero-three."

5. Your ARRL section. Most ops speak the section name, such as "Santa Clara Valley" or "Eastern Massachusetts." You'll need to have a list of section abbreviations handy to know that's SCV or EMA. After the first year you'll know them all by heart.

The other station will probably be speaking his exchange pretty rapidly. If you miss an element, be sure to ask for it again, for example, "I need your check."

The first time you try this you'll probably get "wrapped around the axle" pretty quickly. But stick with it and soon you'll be working 20 or more contacts an hour. The big gun (loud) stations are begging for contacts by Sunday afternoon and you can work them easily. Set a modest goal and then each year try to improve on it. In Dilbert-speak, those subsequent goals should be "stretch" goals.

You can work each station only once in the contest, NOT once per band. And there are a couple of section abbreviation "gotcha's" to be aware of. Los Angeles is LAX because Louisiana is LA. And San Diego is SDG because South Dakota is SD.

I'll be new to Sweepstakes this year as well. What exactly is the "check"? Somebody in my club said you actually need to say the word "check" in your serial number. Is that true? What does that do? Thanks.

You'll find some stations say "check" and then the digits and others will just say the digits after their call. Do as it seems comfortable for you. Brevity demands that one not say more than necessary but include all the elements. If someone decides to shortcut the exchange by not saying their call, make sure that they repeat it until they get the exchange right! The callsign is required as part of the complete exchange.

I'll be new to Sweepstakes this year as well. What exactly is the "check"? Somebody in my club said you actually need to say the word "check" in your serial number. Is that true? What does that do? Thanks.

Sweeps exchange has both a serial number and a check. Confusing them would be bad. Saying "check" in your serial number is about the best way to ensure a busted exchange that I can think of.

This will be my first Sweepstakes as well. I'm going to be using spotting assistance and running 50 watts so I'm thinking I will be Single Op unlimited, I was first licensed in 1978 and my QTH is in Georgia.If I have this correct my exchange on my first QSO would go something like this....You're 001, United, W4HIJ, 78, Georgia or possibly "Golf Alpha" for GeorgiaSound right?Tnx and 73,Michael, W4HIJ

You're correct, Michael. Just remember that as an Unlimited station there is now a split into low and high power classifications. It doesn't change your precedence, just be sure to note the correct power level in your Cabrillo log file.

Tnx for the affirmation. Yes, hope to have a bit of fun today. I operate almost all the HF contest in a casual fashion. Not in them to win anything, just to work on chasing paper. For some reason though, I've never tried a sweepstakes. That exchange is going to take some getting used to compared to the standard "Thank you, 59 01 Georgia"See you all in the contest,Michael, W4HIJ

First time for me too! Worked 69 sections tonight (about 140 Qs) and hit the wall...it's all dupes for me right now on 40 so time for bed. It took me about 4 hours to finally get smooth at speaking the exchange. Kept tripping up on remembering to include my call. So I recorded a macro, but that just felt weird using it.

Anyone know the answer as to why the contest organizers decided to include your own call sign as part of the exchange?

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